Page 71 of Knot Playing Fair 2

“Then you didn’t do it right!” Byron shot back, his eyes flashing fire in the light from the streetlamp. “You can’t just—” He gestured in frustration. “—be inlimbolike this!”

I recognized when my own anger was about to rise up and slip my control. It was a feeling I hated—too much of a reminder of my adoptive father and his irrational rages. Yet, somehow, hating it never seemed to stop it from happening. I stepped forward, jabbing my own finger into the center of a well-defined chest.

“Andyou,” I began, “can’t just waltz in here and tell me how to deal withmyfailing marriage andmywife, who Ihurt. Just because you and I fucked a handful of times in a cheap motel room, it doesn’t give you the right to—”

A faint, indrawn breath from somewhere behind me had me whipping my head around, panic thrumming in my veins. A slender figure with a head topped by dark, flyaway hair stood silhouetted in the mouth of the alley.

Byron froze. “Luca?” he said.

The omega took a few steps closer, steadying himself against the restaurant’s brick wall. “Wait. Seriously...wait. You slept withbothof them? What thefuck, Byron?”

Byron let out an irritated sigh, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “It’s not as bad as it sounds, okay?”

Luca made a disbelieving noise, low in his throat. “Oh? Because I’m not gonna lie, Byron—but it sounds pretty fucking bad. Especially since I’m one hundred percent sure that Mia has absolutely no idea.”

“And we’d both like to keep it that way,” Byron said sharply—the first words out of his mouth tonight that I actually agreed with.

I drew breath to second the motion—only to be cut off, yet again. This time, by the sound of tires squealing to a halt as blinding headlights turned into the alley, dazzling my vision. I raised an arm, trying to shield my eyes, at the same time Luca stumbled backward past me, jostling me in his haste.

“Oh fuck... ohfuck,” the omega breathed, his voice high and tight with panic.

THIRTY

Mia

IT WAS STRANGE THATI hadn’t noticed how much I missed my kitchen. While the Elderflower Inn had been on unplanned hiatus, all I could think about was the never-ending march of problems in my life. My marriage. My accidental heat. My disappearing Michelin star. The sabotage. The gang.

Yet, now that I was back with my crew, making amazing food for appreciative diners, I couldn’t believe I’d survived without this feeling for as long as I had.

It helped that by all accounts from the front of the house, our grand reopening was a smashing success. Nat had looked positively dazed every time he poked his head in to update me and check on things in the kitchen.

Intellectually, I understood that my problems hadn’t gone away simply because we were having a good night. But, damn, did it feel fantastic to do my job and do it well, surrounded by a great team of like-minded individuals all focused on a single goal.

The Elderflower Inn wasback, baby.

“Go on, chef,” Shani called, a few minutes after Nat informed me that Zalen and the others had arrived. “There’s a bit of a lull—go say hi to your guests! We’ve got this.”

I grinned at her, unable to help myself. “Don’t let Maleeka overcook that steak!” I called back. “Otherwise, I’ll have to dock her by twenty thousand Instagram followers!”

“Pfft,” Maleeka said. “Twenty thousand? I’ll get them back in a weekend.”

I laughed, struck by how seldom I’d done that over the past few weeks. After wiping my hands on a towel and stripping off my apron, I slipped out of the kitchen and headed into the dining room. A small cheer went up as the nearest diners recognized me; something that had never happened before, to my recollection.

I couldn’t help the blush that heated my cheeks as I waved sheepishly, thanking the raucous table of strangers for coming. It took me a longer time than I would have expected to locate Zalen’s party—mostly because I’d been expecting four people and there were only two.

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